July 28, 1887] 



NA TURE 



311 



vouchsafe some rather mysterious information. It would be 

 ''very wrong," says the Vice-President of the Council, to bring 

 into force the "enormous voting; piwer" of London on the 

 question of forbidding some scheme of the local authority ; and 

 consequently he has put himself into communication with the 

 London School Board, or rather with Sir Richard Temple, its 

 Vice-Chairman, to devise a way out of the difficulty. With the 

 result he seems particularly pleased, but, as the proposal of Sir 

 Richard Temple is not made public, it is lawful to reserve our 

 opinion. Then there is the question of the directing authority. 

 It is not to be the Education Office ; it is to be the Science and 

 Art Department. Whether this will create any possible conflict 

 of authorities it is difficult to say ; but as thise two bodies have 

 the same head — the President and the Vice President of the 

 Council — it may be hoped that the conflicts will not be common 

 o." easy. 



It is not to be supposed that such a Bill as this, which creates 

 a new rating authority, and therefore threatens the pockets of 

 the ratepayers, will pass into law without a good deal of criti- 

 cism, or that it will be universally popular. Our correspondent, 

 Mr. Daniel Watney, this morning gives utterance to a protest of 

 which the language is strong, though the arguments are un- 

 convincing. He admits that the old apprenticeship system has 

 broken down, and that some substitute must be found ; but any- 

 thing like a general system of technical instruction, directed by 

 the local authorities and the Science and A'-t Department, is 

 condemned out of hand. Mr. Watney seems to think that the 

 new proposal would give too much power to Professors, for 

 whom he entertains the contempt of the "practical man." The 

 practical man is commonly little more than an imperfect theorist ; 

 and just now, in England, his success in maintaining the com- 

 mercial supremacy of the country is not such as to invest him 

 with commanding authority. For our part we do not see where 

 the Professors are to come in under Sir William Hart Dyke's 

 Bill ; but if they did come in, perhaps it might not be a bad 

 thing for the improvement of our theoretical, and therefore our 

 practical, knowledge. As to the immediate prospects of the 

 Bill, it would seem from its reception on Tuesday night that the 

 House is favourable to it. Mr. Mundella made two objections : 

 one to the delegation of all power of initiation to the localities, 

 and one to the exclusion of all pupils below the sixth standard. 

 The objections stand on different grounds. The former is one 

 of principle, the latter one of detail. It is not likely that the 

 Government will venture, so late in the Session, and at a time 

 when other difficulties have to be met and faced, to propose a 

 sweeping measure for imposing technical instruction by the act 

 of a central Department. The ratepayer must be humoured if 

 his assent is to be won. As to the second objection, we think 

 Mr. Mundella is probably right. The choice lies between 

 retaining all children at school till they have passed the fifth 

 I standard, and admitting fifth-standard children to whatever 

 ! technical classes may be available. It would be unjust to 

 I deprive them altogether, after they have left school, of the 

 i opportunity of learning whatever can be learnt about their 

 i trades. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin de la Socihe des Naturalistes de Moscou, 1887, 

 No. I. — The Scaphirhynchns, being an elaborate compara- 

 tive anatomical description (in German) of the genus and its 

 species, by N.Iwanzow (with two plates). — On the great comet 

 (43) of 1886, by Th. Bredichin (with a plate).— Enumeration of 

 the vascular plants of the Caucasus, by M. Smirnoff (in French). 

 In this third paper the author discusses the relative moistness of the 

 ak in the Caucasus ; he gives most valuable tables from twenty- 

 tlffee Caucasian stations, and shows the dependency of moisture 

 t^n the prevailing winds ; he then gives tables as to the amount 

 and frequency of rain in different parts of Caucasia, and discusses 

 this climatic factor in comparison with the distribution of rains 

 apon the Mediterranean region generally. This most valuable 

 paper is to be continued. — On calorimetric methods for deter- 

 «uning minimal quantities of iron in mineral waters, by E. 

 iUslakovsky. — Comparative discussion of the data collected in 

 Russia as to the epochs of the blooming of plants which are freely 



? [rowing or cultivated between the 44th and 60th degrees of 

 xtitude, by A. Doengingk, being a most valuable paper (in 

 Gennan), containing a list of the times of blooming of 270 

 different species at Pyatigorsk, Kishineff, Sarepta, Orel, 



Moscow, and St. Petersburg. This is followed by a note on the 

 blooming of 225 plants at Pyatigorsk and Elizabethpol in the 

 Caucasus, as also on trees and bushes, endemic and exotic, in the 

 Caucasus, showing the origin of the exotic plants. — On the 

 parasitical pteromalines of the Hessian fly, by Prof. Lindeman. 

 Five parasites, all new species, are described (in German) and 

 figured. — Entomological notes, by the same, on the Haltica 

 vittula of Russia, the Scotylus amygdali of Transcaucasia, and 

 the Ckis;dstra Jlavipes hoxa Moscow. — On the tooth-plates of the 

 GulnariiE, by Dr. W. Dybowski (in German). — On remains 

 of the Ursus spelaus in Transcaucasia, by N. Anutschin (in 

 German). — On the species of Taraxacum and Glycyrhiza, and 

 Alhagi camclorum, by A. Becker. 



No. 2.— Comparative anatomical inquiry into the structure of 

 the cord of fishes and its cuticular envelopes, by W. LvofT (with 

 three plates). A most elaborate inquiry into, preceded by an 

 historical sketch of the literature of, the subject (summed up in 

 German). — A study on the palasontological history of the Ungu- 

 latpe in America and Europe, by Mary Pavlow (in French). 

 After having summed up the ideas developed on this subject by 

 MM. Cope, Wortman, and Schlosser, the author studies the 

 group of Condylathra, and shows that its separate members 

 may have been predecessors of some orders of Mammalia ; 

 that it is a mixed group containing species which have the 

 characters of Ungulatfe as well as of Unguiculatae ; and that it may 

 be considered as standing at the head of the genetic tree of the 

 Ungulatce and Carnivores. Madame Pavlow shows, moreover, 

 that the Condylathra have also representatives in Europe. — 

 Notes on the remains of man and Ursus spelaus in Trans- 

 caucasia, by N. Anutschin. — The Hessian fly (Cecidomyia destruc- 

 tor) in Russia, by Prof. Lindeman (in German), being an elaborate 

 paper on the history of its spreading, its habits and devastations, 

 and its development (to be continued). 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Entomological Society, July 6. — Dr. D. Sharp, President, 

 in the chair. — Mr. McLachlan remarked that at the meeting of 

 the Society in October 1886 he exhibited a quantity of the so- 

 called "jumping seeds" from Mexico, containing larvae of 

 Carpocapsa saltitans, Westw. The seeds had long ceased to 

 "jump," which proved that the larvas were either dead, had 

 become quiescent, or had pupated ; about a fortnight ago he 

 opened one of the seeds, and found therein a living pupa. On 

 the 4th inst. a moth (exhibited) was produced. — The President, 

 on behalf of the Rev. H. S. Gorham, exhibited the following 

 Coleoptera, lately taken in the New Forest : Anoplodera sex- 

 guttata. Fab., wholly black variety; Grammoptera analis. 

 Fab. ; Colydium elongatum. Fab. ; and a specimen of Tachinus 

 elongatus, Gyll., with brownish-red elytra. — Mr, S. Stevens 

 exhibited a specimen of Orsodacna hunieralis, Latr. (litteola, 

 Panz. , var. ), taken by him at Norwood ; he also exhibited a 

 specimen of the same beetle taken by him fifty years ago in 

 Coombe Wood ; during the interval he had never seen it alive. 

 —Mr. G. T. Porritt exhibited, on behalf of Mr. N. F. Dobree, 

 of Beverley, a series of about thirty specimens of a Taniocampa 

 he had received from Hampshire, which had previously been 

 referred to as a red form of T. gracilis. Mr. Dobree was in- 

 clined to think they were not that species, but T. stabilis. — 

 Mr. A. C. Horner exhibited the following species of Coleoptera 

 from the neighbourhood of Tonbridge : — Compsochilus palpalis, 

 Esp. (5) ; Acrognathus mandibularis, Gyll. (4) ; Homalota 

 atrata, Mann., If. vilis, Er., and H. dijicilis, Bris. ; Calodcra 

 rubens, Er. ; and Oxytelus fulvipes, Er. He also exhibited a 

 Rhizophagus from Sherwood Forest, which appeared to belong 

 to a new species ; and several specimens of Holopedina polypori, 

 Forst., also from Sherwood Forest, where he had found it in 

 company with, and probably parasitic on, Cis vestitus. — Mr. 

 Elisha exhibited two larvae of Zelleria hepariella, Stn. Mr. 

 Stainton remarked that as the greater part of the larvae of 

 Zelleria were attached to the Oleaceae, it seemed strange that 

 certain species had recently been found on Saxifrage. — Mr. 

 Slater read a paper on the presence of tannin in certain insects, 

 and its influence on their colours. He mentioned the facts that 

 tannin was certainly present in the tissues of the leaf- wood- and 

 bark-eating species, but not in the tissues of the carnivorous 

 beetles, and that black colour on the elytra of certain beetles 

 appeared to be produced by the action of iron on tannin. A 



